Processor approval:
Since its beginnings in 1988, iTi has traveled the world looking for tropical and exotic
fruits for the North American and Caribbean market. Over time, we have approved a selected
group of tropical fruit processors based on their quality and processing standards. To date,
we have exclusive partnerships with the largest manufacturer of tropical fruits in the world.
As a result, we are able to offer our customers a variety of premium quality tropical fruit juices, purees,
and juice concentrates.

Manufacturing:
Many of our tropical fruit processors source the raw tropical fruit from their own plantations
while others purchase it from local growers. Matured tropical fruit are harvested and transported
to the processing plant. At arrival to the plant, the quality control personnel inspect the
tropical fruit for ripeness, defects and overall quality and perform laboratory testing before
approving the fruit for processing. Pesticide certificates are requested from the growers.

Tropical fruit is washed and inspected to remove fruits with defects as specified by the
Quality Control Department. Once the tropical fruit is properly washed and selected, the tropical fruit juice is extracted,
pasteurized and packed frozen or aseptically. The fruit juice can be further passed thru an
evaporator to remove the water for the manufacturing of the fruit juice concentrates.

Fruit quality control:
Trained personnel perform preoperational inspections on the equipment as well as production audits,
monitoring compliance with GMP and processing controls. Line and finished tropical fruit product samples are tested
for compliance with chemical, physical and microbiological standards. Finished product is released
by the Quality Control Department based on full compliance with the product specifications.

A closer look at our tropical passion fruit processor:
Let us share the process of tropical passion fruit at our exclusive processor, Quicornac, S.A.,
in Ecuador. Our tropical passion fruit juices and concentrates represent the excellence in
quality that iTi Tropicals demands for its customers. Quicornac is one of the largest tropical
passion fruit processors in the world. iTi Tropicals is their exclusive sales representative
for North America.

At Quicornac, utmost care is taken with Tropical passion fruit from fruit receiving to processing with
state-of-the-art equipment.

Tropical Fruit is hand-harvested which allows for individual inspection. A second table inspection
occurs before tropical fruit is shipped to the processing plant. When the fresh tropical fruit arrives
at the plant, it is checked for color and aroma and compared against specifications for pH, titratable
acidity (T.A.), and Brix.

The tropical fruit is washed, scrubbed and passed to a third inspection point. The tropical passion
fruit is lightly pressed and the juice is squeezed out by a set of specially designed fruit rollers.
The passion fruit juice is separated from the pulp and seeds by a centrifuge and is then deaerated and
pasteurized. To produce a 50 Brix concentrate, water is removed by a low pressure, partial vacuum evaporation.

The low temperature isn't destructive to the desirable vitamins and fruit flavor components, thus microbial
levels are low but flavor and vitamins are retained.

Brix is monitored by an on-line refractometer. An additional distillation step captures volatile
aromas by recovering these compounds from the evaporated water. The aroma is then added back to
the tropical passion fruit juice concentrate. The tropical juice is sanitarily filled into drums or pails and then
frozen at 0 degrees F. The plant Quality Control staff checks the end product against T.A., Brix,
pH, % pulp, total bacteria, and yeast and mold counts.